From USA Today:
Ford Motor won't start selling its Ford Escape Hybrid sport-utility vehicle until August. And it plans to sell only 20,000 a year. But it already has 30,000 potential buyers.
Escape Hybrid will be the first gasoline/electric hybrid vehicle from a Detroit automaker and the first hybrid SUV sold in the USA.
"Clearly, there is a lot of buzz about SUVs and this being a first," says Chris Fuell, who manages SUV marketing for Ford.
This is maddening. If there's a technology available that will allow the average citizen to be lest dependent on fossil fuels, and there's a big market demand for the technology, then why isn't Ford meeting the demand? The customers are there, the technology is there, what's the hold up? They'll still be selling lots of the cars, right? Isn't that the goal for Ford? To make and sell a lot of cars?
Maybe there's other factors at play here, but from an outsider looking in it doesn't make much sense.